bute towards it, by Preferving that Life which God continues to them. For they are our Brethren, and God has made of One Blood All Nations upon the Earth. They are the Image of God: Christ has fhed His Blood for them: and may yet Grant them Repentance, and make them Glorious Saints of His Kingdom. Therefor Charity must Extend to All, without Exception; tho not without Difcri

mination.

II. That this Charity muft, of ne ceffity, be a Tenth, and not under,. I do not Contend. For tho the Jews did pay a Second Tythe to the Poor; yet that stands not upon the fame Foundation as the Tythes of Worship, which were before the Law, and U niversally Receiv'd from the Beginning of the World.

Yet, fince the Jews did pay a Tenth to the Poor, I think we ought not to Pay Lefs; but rather More, becaufe as Ireneus faid, We have a Better Hope. But I ftint not the Proportion; only Recommend St. Paul's Advice to our Confideration, that He who foweth Spar 2 Cor.ix.6. ringly, fhall reap also Sparingly: And

he

he who Soweth Bountifully, shall Reap alfo Bountifully.

III. But now as to the Tythe of Worship, as that is Determin'd to a Tenth, at Least, so must it be Pay'd only to The Priests of the Lord. Because it is Part of God's Worship, it is one of the Offerings of The Lord; and as other Offerings and Sacrifices, it cannot be Öffer'd, but by the Priests. And particularly as to the Offering of our First-fruits and Tythes, it is comDeut. xxvj. manded to be done by the Priests. It is Invading of the Priest's Office for any other to Offer it. The fame Sin 2 Chron. for which God fmote Uzziah, and 1 Sam. xiij. Rejected Saul; and Declar'd it Death for any, but His Priefts, to Offer upon His Altar. And the Sacrifices of fuch who Offer them by any other hands than those of His Priefts, are fo far from being Accepted, that they are Sin, and, like the Offerings of Korah, Rebellion against God.

3, 4.

12.

IV. But how fhall they do who live in Foreign, Infidel, or Heretical Countries, where they can have no Priefts; that is, None whom they Own?

1. Let them, if they can, Imitate the Zeal of Tobias, who, being of the Ten Idolatrous and Schifmatical Tribes that had Caft off the Priesthood of Levi, carry'd his Tythes to Jerufalem, and offer'd them there by the hands of the Priests the Sons of Aaron, as you find Tob. i. 6.

2. But if this cannot be done, for the Distance of the Place, or other Infuperable Difficulties: then they ought to Send their Tythes to fuch Priefts whom they think to be true Priests of God and confequently by whofe hands they believe God will Accept of them.

Ther is no Place too far for Sending. We Traffick for Mammon to all Parts of the World.

It was Common with the Gentiles, to Send their Tythe. Of which feveral Inftances are before given.

Mr. Selden fhews this, That Tythes Hillary of (IT) were yearly fent to Delos, Tythes, where Apollo was born, to be offer'd 3. P. 30. to him There.

The Carthaginians us'd to Send their Jufin. Hift. Tythe to Tyre (whence they had 1.18.p.186. Come) by one Cloathed in Priestly Purple

Purple Robes, to be offer'd to Her

cules.

And if We cannot take fo Muc Pains, We have Lefs Zeal than they And Lefs Truft in our God, Lefs Fait in His Promifes, and Fear of Hi Threatnings, than they towards their Idols. And our Reward will be Ac cordingly.

SECT.

XXI.

In what MANNER Tythes ought to be Offered.

I.

TH

HE Offering of our Tythe to God, being an Act of Wor fhip, ought, no doubt, to be Perfor med with Prayers and Adoration of God. And God Himself did Prefcribe a Form for it, Deut. xxvi.

Out of which, and other Scriptures, refpecting Chriftians, as Different from the Jews, I have Compos'd the Form hereunto Annex'd. Not that I wou'd Impofe it upon any: But the Church not having Prefcrib'd fuch an Office,

leaves it to Private Chriftians to Exert their own Devotion. And if what I have done may be helpful to any others, I have the End for which I have Publifh'd it.

II. And as under the Law a Baf- Deut. xxv. ket of the First-fruits was to be 4. brought to the Altar, and there Of fered in Name of All the Reft, which were Repofited in the Store-houfes belonging to the Temple, for that Purpofe: So I conceive it ought to be with us, The Reafon is the fame; and was before the Law, and without the Law so Practis'd by the Gentiles, pursuant to the Universal Tradition Receiv'd, and Deduc'd down all the way from Adam, as before has been Difcourfed.

Nor can it otherwise, at least not fo properly, be made an Act of Devotion; that is, an actual Tender and Offering of the Whole to God. Which is not done by barely Parting with our Tythe, or fuffering it to be Drawn from us. The Whole cannot be Offer'd at the Altar But a Basketful, in Name of the Whole, is a Dedica tion and Offering of the Whole.

Accord